Flight Training - June 2023 - 6

ALWAYS LEARNING BY SARAH DEENER
Senior Director of Publications/
Editor SARAH DEENER is an
instrument-rated commercial
pilot who's putting off the
instructor certificate until her
youngest is out of diapers.
sarah.deener@aopa.org
saturated tend to devolve into disjointed
partial sentences or taper out completely;
if I can't clearly articulate what I'm
doing, it's a likely cue I'm not performing
that task to the standard I should. Clear
communication demands clear thinking,
so saying it out loud even when no one
is in the right seat helps me clarify for
myself precisely what I should be doing.
That clarity helps when it's tempting
to fall into halfhearted corrections,
noncommittal drifting, or maybe-no-onewill-notice
hedging. Even on track and in
level flight, flying isn't a passive endeavor.
Each declaration we make is an assertion
that we know what's happening, have
identified the correct action to take, and
are taking charge to execute it.
SAY IT WITH ME
I had the needle of the course deviation indicator centered
when my instructor recited a clearance for an instrument
approach into Gettysburg Regional Airport in Pennsylvania.
With her playing the role of air traffic control, the clearance
would allow me to descend to within 700 feet of the surface
referencing only the flight instruments and the CDI-no outside
references allowed. So, I toggled through menus on the GPS,
activated the approach, and turned my attention back to the
instruments. But something had changed.
The magenta needle had drifted one dot right, my heading 15 degrees left.
Naively hoping to correct the error before my instructor noticed, I started a gentle
correction to the right.
" Watch your needles, " she said, pointing at my still-errant CDI.
I was fixing it, I wanted to argue. But I wasn't. If I were fixing it, it would
have been fixed. Instead, I'd turned to my original heading, flying parallel to the
approach course but not on it. And, since I'd never said my intentions out loud, it
wasn't clear to her if that slow right turn was correction or wandering.
In our debrief after that instrument proficiency check, my CFI urged me to
say what I'm doing-out loud. That way she'd know when I was correcting and
could observe my thought processes for briefing the approach and configuring
the airplane. Plus, the skill of verbalizing my actions would come in handy on
future checkrides.
" You're going to go for your CFI, right? " (CFIs love to give this gentle nudge-of
course you are.) Instructors need to explain what they're doing while they're doing
it, which is a complex skill set involving proficiency in the maneuver itself, an
understanding of the steps required, and divided attention between performing the
maneuver and coherently describing it.
Even though I'm not (yet) pursuing my flight instructor certificate, these are all
good reasons to verbalize my actions during every flight. My callouts when I'm task
6
FLIGHT TRAINING JUNE 2023
EACH DECLARATION WE
MAKE IS AN ASSERTION
THAT WE KNOW WHAT'S
HAPPENING AND ARE
TAKING CHARGE.
I am working on more consistently
talking through my actions, from preflight
through shutdown. While checking fuel
and oil levels during preflight, reciting
the quantity out loud helps me process
the number and commit it to memory.
On climbout, calling out altitudes
approaching level-off keeps me from
overshooting, and then running through
the cruise checklist out loud gives me the
assurance that the flight is on track and
under control. My landings are best when
I talk through flap and power settings
throughout the traffic pattern and
verbalize my corrections on the approach.
This is all easier without an audience.
But the more I make a habit of talking to
myself on routine flights, the easier it will
be to do so with an instructor or examiner
watching. And, however silly it might
feel to treat my passengers to a running
commentary of every switch I flip, I think
they'll appreciate the insight into what's
happening on the flight.
And, the next time I drift off course on
an instrument approach, I promise to fess
up and fix it. FT
Flight Training - June 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - June 2023
